Geraint Thomas Will Take the Fight to Tadej at the Giro d’Italia
How do you beat someone as talented as Tadej Pogačar over the course of a three-week Grand Tour? According to INEOS Grenadiers’ leading man Geraint Thomas, you take the fight straight to him.
“Our plan is to be aggressive and look for every opportunity to add pressure,” said the 2018 Tour de France champion of the upcoming Giro d’Italia.
“Obviously (Pogačar) is the pre-race favorite and has a strong team around him, and that changes the dynamic of the race a bit,” Thomas told GCN. “But that also means all eyes will be on him over three long weeks of hard racing.”
Thomas—who at 37 years old seems to continue to defy age—is also looking to avenge last year’s Giro loss, in which he relinquished the maglia rosa to Primož Roglič on the race’s penultimate day, an 18.6-kilometer mountain time trial.
Pogačar didn’t race last year’s Giro and, as he does with any race he enters, immediately became a heavy favorite the minute he announced he was gunning for a Giro-Tour double this season.
Still, Thomas is a proven champion who has shown he has the legs to contest in the Giro. To help their leader, there will be a stocked Ineos Grenadiers squad that features Filippo Ganna, Tobias Foss, cousins Ben and Connor Swift, Thymen Arensman, Jhonnatan Narvaez, and impressive young American Magnus Sheffield, who will be making his Grand Tour debut. It’s a familiar lineup to the team Ineos brought to last year’s Giro, as Arensman, Ganna, and Ben Swift all supported Thomas in that race.
Though the team included mountain specialists like Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pavel Sivakovon on last year’s roster, this year’s Giro features less climbing than the last few editions.
“We have a strong lineup, and there is a good bond with this group. The core is the same as last year’s Giro team, with some great additions for this year,” Thomas said. “We have spent a lot of time together at training camp; we know what we need to do and are all feeling super motivated to get the job done and deliver.”
Even though Thomas, Foss, and Arensmen have all finished in the top ten of the Giro in the past, Ineos team director Steve Cummings clearly stated that the team was riding in support of Geraint Thomas. “In Geraint, we have one of the most experienced riders in the peloton to lead the charge to Rome,” Cummings said. “He is a proven winner, a brilliant bike rider, and a great leader.”
Like Pogačar, Thomas is aiming for a Giro-Tour double this year, which, according to Thomas, is what contributed to his having a quiet Spring where he’s started just four races—Volta Algarve, Volta a Catalunya, Strade Bianche, and the Tour of the Alps—totaling eighteen race days.
“With the plan to race the Giro and then go straight into the Tour, there has been a different approach and slower build-up this season,” he said. “But I am feeling good and not thinking beyond the coming weeks in Italy. My only focus now is the Giro and arriving there in my best shape possible.”
On the other hand, Tadej Pogačar has also competed in four races, totaling just ten race days. Seven of those came in the Volta a Catalunya, at which he won all three jerseys and bested Thomas by twenty-six spots in the GC.
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